HERE’S AN IDEA: Let’s Taser people who talk during movies, give them electric shocks to stun them into silence.

That’s from Mark Frost. Like so many others, “The Greatest Game Ever Played” screenwriter finds audience members who never shut up one of the main reasons people are boycotting movie theaters. The summer box office was down 7 percent from a year ago.

A recent poll conducted by Online Testing eXchange found that 35 percent of those sampled have seen fewer films this year that last — citing increased costs, better home-entertainment systems and the availability of new flicks on DVD.

A mid-summer Entertainment Weekly poll indicated the main reasons people go to movies less today are, in order: high ticket prices; annoying audience members; less satisfying experience; declining quality of movies.

Clearly something needs to change. The dilemma is: How does Hollywood fix it?

We asked a host of screenwriters, directors, actors and regular people what they would do to bring folks back to the movies.

Imagine you are the czar of Hollywood, we suggested, like the commissioner of baseball, and you have the power to do whatever you want. What would you do to get people going to movies again?

Among the most provocative answers were: in-theater day-care centers, firing studio marketing departments and eliminating the Motion Picture Association of America rating system. Here’s a look at the ideas.

Fire marketing departments

John Dahl has things pretty well thought out.

The director of “Red Rock West,” “The Last Seduction,” “Joy Ride” and, most recently, “The Great Raid,” Dahl would implement a three-point plan.

First, he says, “Fire all studio marketing departments. If I were running a studio I would hire a freelance marketing department. I think departments get into a rut…”

He notes the sameness of poster designs, the lack of originality in marketing campaigns.

Second, he wants studios to take more risks, one being to let filmmakers make their films without interference. “They should spend less time trying to figure out how to make the movies and more time how to sell them,” Dahl says.

Studios try to control the filmmaking process too much. “And trying to control the process drives everything to mediocrity,” Dahl says. “What people really want is a unique voice telling them a story. That’s what I want. When it’s a committee process that voice gets lost.”

Stop equating quantity with quality

Whoever has the most, wins. With movies, that means the biggest box office.

Studios “equate quantity with quality,” says Mark Frost, who collaborated with David Lynch on “Twin Peaks’ and who adapted “The Greatest Game Ever Played” from his bestselling novel.

Echoing Dahl, Frost says, “Movies are being driven from an ability to sell the idea in the marketplace as opposed to from a great idea or story that you then figure out how to sell.”

Part of the solution: No more sequels, no more remakes. “Let’s make original stories,” he says.

He puts part of the blame for the attendance fall-off on exhibitors, for playing the junk and for letting people chat during screenings. Thus his solution: “I would put Tasers in all the seats, operated from a control room up above.”

Forget the pitch, avoid the formula

Gore Verbinski thinks studio execs are short-sighted.

“I think there are so many people in positions of power who are only concerned with what happens under their watch,” says Verbinski, director of “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “The Weather Man,” which opens Oct. 28.

No one is willing to green-light a project that might not get started until after they’re gone, he says. “Smarter fiscal decisions could be made but are not.”

Verbinski says studios should have a five-year plan rather than base policies on mistakes from the past. Approach each project independently, he says, and decide what’s best for it.

And don’t pass on a project just because it doesn’t fit into a one-line description. It may be harder to sell, but it may be worth it.

Suss out the talent

“I would figure out a way of finding and harnessing good writers,” says actor Eugene Levy, star of “The Mighty Wind” and “The Man.”

“I just find the caliber of writing is lacking,” he say. “I think a lot of the comedies are one-dimensional and take short cuts. I think there are only a couple of great writers working in comedy now. Jim Brooks (“As Good As It Gets,” “Spanglish,” “Broadcast News”), I think, Nancy Meyers (“Something’s Gotta Give,” “Father of the Bride,” “Baby Boom”).

Claire Danes agrees, but takes the idea further, into the actors, directors and cinematographers.

He says he hasn’t seen “Stealth’ or “The Island” because, judging from the trailers, they don’t look appealing.

“It’s just tons of action,” he says. “After a while, how many cars can you blow up? I want to see something I can relate to.”

He loved “Cinderella Man” and figures it flopped at the box office because of the timing — it came out during the summer when people want light, not heavy.

“It was a great story but it made no money,” Hauser says. “If I were to release it I would never release it when they did.”

Timing is everything.

Remember why you’re here

David Strathairn, star of “Good Night, And Good Luck,” would pull together all the studio bosses and try to find out why they’re in the movie business and what their priorities are.

Then, he says, “I would present the powers that be, and this is people who are from all walks of this business, with a question: ‘What do you want to be remembered for when you walk away from here?’ And then I’d see what the people say.

“I would ask them to take stock: What is it that we are doing and what is it in our hearts of hearts that we would like to do?… I would say we should apply a conscience to this, to what we do.”

He mentions filmmakers such as George Clooney, John Sayles and Steven Soderberg, documentarians and “people who fund risky little insightful human dramas” as examples of people doing the right thing.

As a result, they not only leave a legacy but “something that lifts us up and doesn’t just stroke the prurience of this business.”

Strathairn would encourage more of that. He would also cut the costs of making movies.

“Hollywood has to say, ‘Let’s come clean, let’s be brave and say, OK, we’ve messed up obviously. And why? Something’s changing out there. It’s a different game. Let’s see if we can get on the court with everybody else.'”

Studios are stuck in formula, actor Terrence Howard says. They should either dump it — or elaborate on it.

“I don’t think what they’re doing is necessarily wrong, says Howard, star of “Hustle & Flow,” “Crash” and “Four Brothers.” “The formula can’t be black and white. You need variables… We need the films that fit… in our hearts and do not just satisfy our entertainment needs.”

Create more films like “Crash,” he says, movies that make people think about issues such as, “What do I need to do to be more productive in society? What do I need to do to better myself?”

Howard would also have studios and filmmakers address the bigger picture.

“We are more multinational than we have ever been before,” he says. “Very few countries have just one language, one tongue. Now that we’re multinational we have to be able to appeal to everyone. The only way is to tell the whole truth. You can’t tell partial truths. You have to expand the humanistic approach to reaching people.”

Don’t worry about ratings

People are primed for racy comedies such as “Wedding Crashers,” comedies that don’t hold back,” says Mike Bigelow, a Castro Valley native who directed “Deuce Bigelow — European Gigolo.”

He would make more.

“There’s a lot of censorship now on network TV,” Bigelow says. “People are used to getting uncut DVDs. It’s nice for them to go to a movie and note the movie’s not going to censor itself.”

He also wants more surprises, less formula, movies where “I can’t see where they’re going beforehand, movies that aren’t retreads.”

More big spectacles such as “War of the Worlds” or highly imaginative films such as “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” would also draw him to the cinema. These types of film are more impressive on the big screen, he explains, than on home-entertainment systems.

Theater-owner perspective

“I would lengthen the window between theatrical releases and DVDs,” says Allen Michaan, president of Renassiance Rialto Inc., which owns and operates the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland and the Orinda.

He would release DVDs after eight months rather than two months.

He would also crack down on video piracy, “because right now you go down to any one of these flea markets and you see people selling bootleg DVDs of the same movies in the theaters for first run,” he says.

And, he would put pressure on all the exhibitors to lower the price of a movie ticket.

Doing the right thing

Since a couple of people singled out the summer hit “Wedding Crashers” as a movie that did all the right things, we asked Andrew Panay, the film’s producer, to share his secrets.

“Don’t be afraid to let the characters breathe, especially in a comedy,” Panay says. “It’s OK to have quiet moments in a comedy. It doesn’t have to be funny from the first second to the last second. Take the time to build the heart.”

And if remaining true to the characters and the story means taking an R- rating, then so be it.

“If that means Rated R, be committed to that. Whatever film that you are making, make sure you are committed all the way even if means affecting the rating. Being true to whatever genre you’re doing even if means affecting the rating scale. That’s the most honest approach to the audience…. We didn’t hold back on anything.”

Also, he and his associates make sure the film was marketed as clearly as possible so people knew what they were going to see. “You understand it from the title,” Panay says. “It’s about crashing weddings, something inherently funny. It makes you smile… We were unabashedly honest about the film was about — crashing weddings to meet girls.”

Had he been czar of Hollywood, the film would not have carried any rating — because he would have dropped the MPAA rating system.

“I would let 14-year-olds and up come to R-rated films because they’re sneaking in anyway,” Panay says. “Nudity wouldn’t be such a taboo here in America. I would open up sexuality so it wouldn’t be such a big deal. Nudity is a beautiful thing… Sometimes Europe has a better handle on it. Violence seems to be slightly more acceptable (in the United States).

“Sometimes what they’re selling may not be what you want to see, but at least you have an opportunity to lay it out there.

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